DB: Tacomart

When I moved here in 2003, people told me that this city was undergoing a metamorphosis. A grand wind of progressive change was in the air, and it was really wild how much people talked about the future of Tacoma and tossed around meaningful phrases like “Arts Renaissance” and “Vibrant Arts Community.” At the very least it captured my imagination and caused me to decide that this would be my home. My arts renaissance experience peaked in the spring of 2006, during a 100th Monkey party held at the Old Longshoreman’s Hall on 17th and Market. Young and old alike had gathered to witness a bizarre arts collaboration between as many as 40 or so individual artists that we lovingly had called the Gypsy Show. The night was a huge success and I remember looking down my painted legs propped up on a table at the Monsoon Room to the strangely decorated leather boots of my companions and I. Between sips of the near holy herbal glory of Chartreuse, I let myself feel the pleasure of having integrated myself into a true arts community.

There have been a few flashes of that brilliant light that is cast from the meeting of many artistic minds since, but none of them seem to pull the elegant mix of young and old … the potent fragrance of the free spirited culture clash that we stumbled upon back then. Isolated pockets of inspiration break the monotony of arts themed festivals with the rare demonstration of actual community building … which is in my opinion the reason the arts exist: to bring people together and teach them how to be themselves … together. A year or so ago there was a 6 month experiment called Kulture Lab that generated quite a bit of that grand coming together that seems to mark the beginning of a rich season in the community.

Kulture Lab, as far as I can gather, was the attempt of a group of “dead artists” (that would like to be publicly unnamed) who just wanted to start something that brought awareness to some of the more “underground” art forms that they had witnessed happening in Tacoma. To these artists, this is a blue collar town at heart, gritty and sopping wet and covered in engine grease and tattoos. They took over an empty space next to the Grand Cinema on 6th and Fawcett that is now being rented by the far more tame “Grand Impromptu Gallery”. I personally found k-lab’s rather shocking and flash-in-the-pan style art shows to be the best party in town for the six months that they occurred, but when the lease was up and the relationships of the dead were strained to their maximum, the doors closed and we were cast back into the “marketable” art scene we now cherish for lack of anything better.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Tacomart itself. Again I stress that there are good things happening here in pockets. Many of the “artists” I knew “back then” have moved out of downtown because the rent is to high, (arts lofts aside, of course … anyone could afford those who sells a few 10,000 paintings a year), but even “back then” people were driving from as far away as Seattle to come join something they thought was going to go somewhere. I think that the hype of an “arts community” is often challenged by our strange lack of interpersonal skills and the ability to forgive one another when things get sticky. Free spirited societies aren’t governed by the same rules that keeps an organization like DaVita or Russell going. No one is standing over your shoulder paying you to make sure that everyone continues to get along.

Recently I took over the lease at the warehouse I have been living in for the past year and a half. The previous lease holder who was renting me a living space, has bought a building downtown and left me with a very large and open room. Back in the day, before it was filled with equipment I would attend parties here and we painted a foursquare court on the floor and would have long games of intense big kid bouncy ball workout. Very few things in my life have consistently brought together my peers in cooperation as well as the foursquare. This past Friday I cleaned the last bit of gross out of the corners of the warehouse and asked my roommate if it was ok to have some people over. I sent out a mass text and from 10-4am we played music, drank, danced and played a children’s game with a ninja-turtle bouncy ball. I probably haven’t had that much fun yet this year, and it reminded me how much I love providing space for people to come together.

This Saturday I am opening my doors to the People from Kulture Lab. December 6th, from 7-11pm there will be snacks, drink, art, music (by my band motopony! among others), video and all sorts of people. It’s 21 and over and they are asking $5 at the door (some of which goes towards keeping this place open for arts-fun so please come and support us!) It will be hard to be disappointed, you will at the very least come away with some shocking stories to tell of those crazy arts types. Perhaps you will fall in love with a mask, painting or some other form of creative flourish that demands your ownership, and even perhaps-perhaps you will find yourself drawn in to a society of brilliant, wonderful individuals that have not forgotten their desperate identities despite the economic crunch.

The Warehouse is located one half of a block from the corner of South 11th and COURT E. Find that corner and I’m sure the entrance to my domicile will be available to your eyes.

I’m looking forward to this weekend as an experiment in what my home is capable of containing, and what Tacoma is capable of cultivating in the way of a class-diverse arts scene. See you there, pilgrims.

For more information visit www.myspace.com/culturelabart